Thursday, January 31, 2008

What is Noise? What is Signal?

BoringFish was learning about noise and signal tonight, very enjoyable.
Speaker profile in wiki. He is quite a renaissance man with many talents; an educator, an author, an economist, a philosopher, an attorney, a mathematician, an engineer and an award winning composer. He is the author of Noise, Fuzzy Thinking; Nanotime, and Heaven in a Chip: Fuzzy Visions of Society and Science in the Digital Age.

Keyword of learning: Fuzzy logic, chaos, noise, signal=energy & information, noise pollution clearinghouse, nausea, nano carbon tubes, Paul Pierre Lévy, Brownian motion

Noise animates us, even as it irritates us.-- Dr. Bart Kosko
Doggie's cousin, doesn't he/she look liked Romeo? Source: Elusive wolves caught on camera
Misery of China's snowbound millions, I feel bad for them, they are just trying to get home for the lunar new year!

The wind is changing so fast, folks across the ocean are saying that the heat in the medla about the recycling scandal is lessen because of this: Japan scare over China dumplings; 中方檢查“毒水餃”廠家未發現異常. They found Methamidophos甲 胺 磷, a breakdown product of the organophosphate insecticide. We should avoid frozen dumplings and foods from JT. Ajinomoto has started a recall of some specified frozen food.

Be a Squeaky Wheel to Avoid 'Gotcha Capitalism', I am the "Sophisticated". I compare shop; scan their monthly bills for unauthorized charges; and exploit credit cards to get cash back and travel perks without ever paying a penny in interest or fees. I liked rebate and cash back! Old navy, countrywide etc.

The World's Largest Malls
Snow, cold, possible twisters pound US

Foreclosures lead to abandoned animals, I can't believe that people are doing this to their pets!!!!!
Middle-age is truly depressing, study finds

科大MBA課程全球十七位
台灣面紋漸逝 花蓮「全紋」人瑞逝世 原住民傳統恐消失
Read this from a sad new report : 戀愛事,合則來不合則去,但若涉及金錢糾紛就難以斷尾,拖拖拉拉會令積怨爆發,所以戀愛要數目分明
Comcast to shutter Asian-themed AZN network
US warship makes first Hong Kong visit since Thanksgiving row

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Monday, January 28, 2008

Happy Birthday Adam.

The Doors-The crystal ship Oh and to Frank & Nina as well!

HK breakfast & Nihongo Ryoouri

假期的豐富港式早餐
和民平價副線 & 為博多拉麵瘋狂 , so yummy!

Endora & her 三"舊"番薯

三"舊"番薯
金寶
金寶個老婆:錢錢
吉仔

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Friday, January 25, 2008

First NHL player of Asian descent beat long odds, WOW, very touching story!
A Little Regular Exercise Extends Men's Lives
每周吃逾6片吞拿魚 水銀量可超標, watch it, mercury fish!
Jewish-American History on PBS.
Flying clouds the real climate culprit, I agreed with Mr. Wright, the real culprit: deforestation, we need to save the rainforests!
EU reveals energy plan of action, let's go GREEN.
Virgin unveils spaceship designs, are you ready for space travel?
Truth was first US casualty in Iraq war: study, isn't it sad?
White Hot
Earn More Pay Working Fewer Hours
Understanding Japan's whale ethics
Macau revenues close in on Vegas
China's rising people power, I have family tie in that city.
GM and Toyota level on 2007salesWhere Did That Cheap Cashmere Sweater Come From?
Smaller films in Oscar spotlight
The best cities {in America} to have babies, Wah-la, Portland!
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Juno & Soundtrack
When Fretting Is in Your DNA:Overcoming the Worry Gene
Expensive Eats
Anti-Nokia backlash grows in Germany

Tough Times

Point Tupper mill spared as NewPage sheds paper operations, a new
Outdoors group asks commissioners to halt High Lakes development, they are fighting for the land!!

The shocking news: 4 paper mills admit more falsifications & Paper industry body 'knew' of wrongdoing from Asahi Shimbun
Hundreds of workers in Finland to strike to protest layoffs, paper mill closures, union power.

White Birch Paper to Buy SP Newsprint Company, a new owner for the Newberg, OR mill.
No more question about paper or plastic at wild oats/whole food. Bring your own bag or get paper!
AbitibiBowater closes down Mackenzie mill, more than 500 forest workers laid off as company speeds up shutdown

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Boyfriend - Andy Lau

y or N?

Monday, January 21, 2008

Fancy dim sum

Yauatcha & Wagamama, I will stick with tea house and hohomei!
What is dim sum? or I call it yum-cha.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Week 3

港人最愛零食 薯片魚蛋各領風騷
Table: Best Cities For Jobs In 2008, in overall ranking, SLC came in 1st again. Emerald city ranks 10th, Tacoma 23rd, Rose City is 32.
健康飲食6天條
吃得好可健腦 脂肪蛋白質碳水化合物 健康飲食 提升腦力
Best in show: The top 10 dog breeds
Citroen regrets Mao ad 'insult'
Sierra Leone bans timber exports
Sundance & Asian Pacific Film Experience & Slamdance
Filmmaker exposes gay life, pollution in China
'Meanest mom on planet' sells son's car, the most famous disobedient son in America is an Asian kid.
Citigroup's $9.8bn sub-prime loss, how do you lose 10 billions in 3 months?
China carmakers eye US market
Ten quick, affordable U.S. vacations for women
Taiwan's opposition in huge win, finally, it's about time, KMT & I hope Ma Ying-jeou 馬英九 will be elected as the next President of Taiwan.
Biofuels 'are not a magic bullet'
Raising a glass to pricey wine
Pressures build on Amazon jungle
SEIU: Bank of America Should Not Be Allowed To Acquire Countrywide, lay off?
13 Things Not to Share with Your Co-workers, a rule of thumb that we all should try, I know I will, esp about the blogging part.

Further supply adjustment

Stora Enso has concluded co-determination negotiations at Summa, Kemijärvi and Anjala Mills and Helsinki Headquarters
NewPage announces integration restructuring plans
Finnforest Agrees to Buy Weyerhaeuser’s European Engineered Wood Products Sales Operations, the company is on the move again.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Shocking news from work.... but I can't say nothing yet.

Japanese New Year & Daily Yomiuri Online, I can't find the headline from YOMIURI.

Just got this at work, I think everyone can use this to relax.

There is light at the end of the tunnel SO, hang in there!!

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Mosq Love.

To climb steep hills requires slow pace at first. --William Shakespeare

Ka-san,

Encouragement
Is of constant need
Both in the inner
World of progress
And in the outer
World of success.
--Sri Chinmoy

Ka-san, o medeto o gozaimasu

Monday, January 14, 2008

He is famous.

How crazy can one be?
Schor accepts mountainous challenge , David’s superstar status.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Is it that bad?

紙婚

情比紙薄 -- 李克勤

More HK 2007 Pop

古巨基 - 愛回家 MV
李克勤 - 花落誰家(原裝KTV)
何韻詩 - 木紋 MV
容祖兒 - 愛一個上一課(原裝KTV)

Blueberries

BoringFish consumes 170g of organic apple everyday and 270g of grapefruit in a cup several times per week. But they did not keep the doctor away from me. After a very unpleasant lab result a week ago, I decide to eat lots and lots and lots of blueberries and go into organic food mode as often as possible. Shopping has been fun.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

BoringFish's 兩"舊"番薯, waiting for NO.3

Missing mama and waiting for Mocha to come.

Colleen with meow

BoringFish visited with Colleen and Kitty

珍惜眼前 活在當下

A good attitude towards living.

Duck Boy B day!

I hope he will have a much improved 2008!

Friday, January 11, 2008

Bugs weeks, it's soooo overdued. Go away, please.

NP started the year with a big bang. P1 got a QIstoryboard team, a super high visble project to tackle machine runnabilities issues. P2 had its QIS team back in December 07,so this is a tough act for BoringFish to follow, being the team leader and the facilitator. So far, I am very stressed, feeling defeated and needing lot of confident boost. Luckily I got some coaching from Mr. G in the 3rd session and I hope it would get better from now on.

I need more training, maybe for everything? Leadership. facilitation, technically stuff etc etc etc.

Besides having the QIS assignment, I also spent majority of the time dealing with bugs (they were my pal from last year) and costs, I am VERY eager to bring you +++ news in 2008 in those area, the sale price is going up, so does cost, so I will continue to refine my roles to be an effective penny pincher. It's gonna be a steep hill, because I am the #1 public enemy to the bug picture. As Lauri said, "OUR future is BRIGHT!", get some shades.

Starches, anyone? You have the variety pack to choose from: corn, tapioca, and potato! Any one wants ethanol, pudding and fries?

PM1 is playing musical chair once again, after Jim retired in Dec 07, we got a desert cougar ME and now Nick (a mountain cougar) is going up to be an important manager in the MAINT, we will begin the replacement selection and wait for the announcement of P1 Mech. leader. This is the 6th positions that got changed in the last 12 months in my mini department,(there were 7 of us). We are all starting fresh and very green.

Useless regional news

Slime, lovely, isn't it? It is so lively. Yuck!

Week1 & 2

Truck accident briefly blocks Industrial Way traffic, the site was not impacted!
New strain on Malaysia's ethnic ties
Fortune’s Sisters
Asian American Students and School Stereotypes
Western storms bring snow, avalanches, OR and WA are included, be careful, snow bunnies!
I was watching Steve Cheseborought in Oregn art beats, learning about this NW blues musician.
Marrying for Love ... of Money, LOVE!
World's cheapest car goes on show
愛心爆棚一級越菜
5 Secret Relationship Resolutions
The Best Walking Tours in Pedestrian-Friendly Cities, HK made the list!!!
10 Best Walking Cities in the U.S, Rose city ranked #1!!!
France best, U.S. worst in preventable deaths
China reinforces one-child stance
What are zoos for?, she ate her cubs, that’s terrible!
Healthy living 'can add 14 years'
Portland 103, Utah 89, the NBA's hottest team.
New polar bear test for Germany
Stories China's media could not write
Taiwan recycles Chiang landmark
Discontent 'grips Chinese cities'
China's thriving Confucian schools
Toyota Passes Ford for No. 2 in US Sales
Happy Marriage Eases Wife's Workday Tension, It's nice to know.
World's Most On-Time Airlines
Oil Futures Rise to $100 a Barrel, scary!
Cinephiles, Pack Your Bags. An Uncut Version Awaits. Have you seen it yet?
Obesity rates among Asian-American youths growing, watch those bacon and fries!
甜蜜愛人Tiramisu
紅玫瑰與白朱古力
UK and US 'keenest on fast food'

What should I do?

Mill's future remains uncertain, bad news for Nanaimo, B.C.
BofA to Pay $4.1B to Buy Countrywide, this is getting interesting!
Headline: Pope & Talbot to sell its Nanaimo, B.C., Mackenzie, B.C., and Halsey, Ore., pulp mills to Sinar Mas for US$225M (I know several people that work at Halsey mill)
Goldman warns of worse newspaper fate in recession
Metso to deliver two board machines to Nine Dragons Paper

Happy Birthday, Ed!

Gus's PaPa, have a good weekend working nights!

Hang in there!

Mosq love,
I just got your message! I am sending Super Duper ++++++ energy your way!
BoringFish
“One word or a pleasing smile is often enough to raise up a saddened and wounded soul.”- St Teresa of Lisieux

Thursday, January 10, 2008

華仔 Married life?

Source

Source: 華仔默認朱麗倩「天使」身分

Source

Tornado hit V-town

Tornado Hits Vancouver Area; Severe Storm Warning For Columbia River Gorge from KOIN.
National Weather Service confirms a tornado did hit Clark County area from KATU.
Possible tornado blows through Vancouver, Wash from KOMO in Seattle.
Tornado touches down in Vancouver area from KGW.
Tornado Touches Down Near Tenino from KOMO in Seattle.

Oh gawd this is getting on my nerves!

Sorry, I have to delete this post to avoid future conflicts.

AKC ORG

This morning, I started listening to Marley & Me on my way to work, and think of AKC. The breeding guidelines are interesting but I love my doggies to matter what.
Siberian Husky, Mocha
Australian Cattle Dog, Romeo
Boxer, Emily
Rottweiler & Australian Shepherd, Coffee

Hit Song from 07 張敬軒 -

酷愛KTV

張敬軒 - Hurt So Bad KTV

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Amos Lee - Arms of a Woman

A lovely song by Amos Lee.

Happy B day, Uncle Andy!

This was taken 2.5 years ago when the family were visiting Fuzhou, China. Uncle Andy, Cuzin M, BoringFish & others were in Chaozhou, eating breakfast one morning at a street vendor.Chiuchow cuisine is very yummy. And grandma is the only one that speaks the language.

Monday, January 07, 2008

Lois & Brian pre wedding pic

The first night of school

Hajimeimashite.
It's gonna be a long winter. I am beat after a long day of work and a long nite of school.

It'a girl.

I just got an invitation to a baby girl's 1-month birthday party from The Pans.

Husky...hmmm.

Source

Needing a well paying new job??? Change career?

Here are the ideas for getting a new job, do you have what it takes?
6 figures pay check; Boring, high demand careers; 30 Top Jobs of 2008; Five Careers With Staying Power

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Desperate syndrome, wedding crave.

I was watching a bunch of " wedding" theme movies this weekend. He is smoking.

Shopping for food, go organic! Ouch!

Food are spendy!
Costco: Organic Sliced Apple, Organic Spinach, Yogurt, Organic Rasinins, Organic Fettucinie, Organic Animal Crackers (for work) & Organic whole wheat penne
Wild Oaks: Organic Milk, Organic Cheese sauce, Organic ice cream, Organic Super Protein Drink & Organic Potatoe Chips.
YIKES.

Wormy looking grains

Healthy but not very appetizing!

Way Back Into Love

Music and Lyrics. Don't Write Me Off

Winter sucks

Wind storm broke my fence and gargage frame!Now my house is not doggie-ready. I need to get it fixed before Emily, Romeo or Mocha come over.

Andy will on be vacation for 9 mths!

劉德華暫別娛圈 個唱閉幕 放9個月長假
071221WonderfulWorld-我恨我痴心
071225WonderfulWorld-天天想你

What you should know about woman

Wisdom from a wise dude.
1. Women have the power…don’t fight it, accept it and appreciate it…a man will be happier.
2. Women like height….thanks Mom and Dad.
3. The little things go a long way!
4. Appreciating and recognizing what she does for you.
5. Giving without expecting reciprocation.
6. Open the door for her as a habit.
7. Send flowers for no reason…not because you did something wrong.
8. Leave her notes.
9. Do something you know she wants you to do before she has to ask you to do it.
10. Be very aware of how your words and actions affect her.
11. Say you are sorry when you are wrong and mean it.
12. Ask for directions if you don’t know how to get there….not necessarily taking about driving! ;-) You’ll get there allot faster! ha
13. Actions speak louder than words.
14. Learn how to kiss good…I know…it’s important!
15. Give her lots of hugs and show your affection.
16. Compliment her.
17. Be honest and loyal.
18. Fricking call if you are not going to be where you said you would be on time. Recognize that she cares and worries about you.
19. Make her laugh.
20. Encourage her dreams and help her obtain them.
21. Kiss her forehead when she’s sleeping.
22. Don’t be selfish in bed….satisfying her helps you!
23. Take pride in your own appearance if you want her to look good for you.
24. Try to put her needs before your own.
25. Surprise her…..in any way you can think of.
26. Be nice.
27. Learn to cuddle and get good at it.
28. She likes to dance….deal with it…try learning if you can’t.
29. Treat her with respect….always!
30. Words can crush….think before you say something hurtful.
31. Value her opinion or at least try to see her side.
32. Just listen
33. Mood swings….they’ll happen…deal with them.
34. Her sex drive probably isn’t has high as yours….deal with it and don’t pout!
35. It doesn’t just switch on for her….learn what she likes and do what you need to do.
36. Be fun….try new things together…keep the fire burning bright.
37. Jewelry never hurts! ;-)
38. Don’t make promises you can’t keep.
39. Give her space when she needs it.
40. Give her support when she needs it.
41. Love her always and make her feel it.
42. Take a mind reading class! ;-)
43. Kiss the back of her neck.
44. Give her a foot massage.
45. Give her a full body massage.
46. Make her feel special...be creative - it's the thought that counts.
47. Let her know that you are thinking of her.
48. Don't be a pushover to her...be strong...be a man!
49. Don’t let her change you…let her improve you!

Saturday, January 05, 2008

BoringFish's Dinner


Organic fettucine with organic spinach and shrimp, yeah I cooked that!

Marley and Me

I am so excited abou my next audio book, it called Marley & Me. Currently, I am going very slow, listening to Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War. I can't wait to start Marley & Me once Huskygal and I finish up Karen B's Night rider. I finally convinced her to start this cute novel of Marley when we finish the last 2 disc of the ultra bad adult espionage novel.

Jens Lekman

I heard this from the OPR radio after my stay at a French cookware party. Love it, love it, love it, I meant the song, not the cookware.
Jens Lekman's official site

Friday, January 04, 2008

Mocha watch

Delay, delay, delay, delay! No flying doggie.
Cuzin Mike did not want to put Mocha on a plane, so she won’t be in creek-town till this summer by land, only if he is free from his field duty at the pit. But I will keep an open mind and see what will come.
Disappointed, distressed, depressed & despaired, not quite yet...... hopefuly, she will come and we can go snowshoeing.

Days missed from IB calendar

Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the starts to change the world.
– Harriet Tubman

Promise only what you can deliver. Then deliver more than you promise.
- Anonymous

Energy and persistence conquer all things
- Benjamin Franklin

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Is One Thyroxine As Good As Another?

If Gertrude Stein had worried about her thyroid, she might have said “thyroxine is thyroxine is thyroxine is thyroxine.” But the drug, used to treat thyroid deficiency, is the second most prescribed in the U.S., doing hundreds of millions of dollars in business for its manufacturers. And when the U.S. Food & Drug Administration last year began allowing sodium levothyroxine, (the form of thyroxine most easily absorbed) in generic form to be interchangeable with brand-name versions, drug companies and many endocrinologists began waging a campaign to convince FDA that not all thyroxine (T4 ) is created equal.

Although it seems the issue should be cut and dry, determining whether or not different brands of T4 are therapeutically indistinct from each other is anything but. It’s true that the only thing chemically different about the pills is their inert ingredients, such as binders. But some drug companies and doctors say studies show that a combination of factors—including the inert ingredients, how T4 is treated and produced in the manufacturing process, as well as how long it’s been on the shelf—affect how fast and how much of the drug is absorbed. And that, they say, can create trouble for patients whose brand of T4 can now be switched by a pharmacist without their knowledge.

FDA maintains that numerous bioequivalence studies have shown that a number of T4 brands, manufactured under strict new standards, are essentially interchangeable. “FDA believes that whatever differences exist in rate and extent of absorption from different products are not clinically meaningful as long as the products have similar potency,” says David G. Orloff, director of FDA’s Division of Metabolic & Endocrine Drug Products.

In fact, Orloff says, even studies on the same drugs show absorption differences. “Those differences are related to the fact that bioavailability studies are conducted in people, as opposed to test tubes,” he says. “There’s some inherent variability that can’t be accounted for.”

Last month, FDA, members of several endocrinological and thyroid societies, and representatives from companies such as Abbott and Sandoz, held a workshop in Washington, D.C. “Both sides presented their views, and nobody changed their minds,” says Carlos R. Hamilton Jr., president of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE). “That didn’t come as a great surprise.”

What makes generic T4 distinct from other generic versions of big-name drugs? For one thing, according to John Leonard, vice president of medical and scientific affairs at Abbott, T 4 is an endogenous substance, like insulin and steroids, which is made by the body to control its normal function. The standard method of testing for bioequivalence—by observing blood concentrations of drugs in healthy volunteers—may be appropriate for exogenous drug like Prozac and Valium, but may not be so in the case of hormones that the body tightly regulates.

A related issue is that T 4 is one of a very few drugs with a so-called narrow therapeutic index. Doctors must work carefully with the patient to titrate an appropriate dose of these drugs, which include the blood thinner Coumadin (and its generic warfarin), as the differences between an ineffective, effective, or toxic dose is very small.

The dangers of an over- or underdose are hyperthyroidism, which can cause atrial fibrillation that can lead to stroke, or hypothyroidism, which could affect the mental development of a fetus in a pregnant woman. But, Hamilton says, most likely it interferes with attempts to stabilize the patient. “It could be life-threatening, but it’s usually not,” he says. “But it is inconvenient and aggravating—everything’s out of whack.”

Hamilton says the issue could be resolved by keeping patients on the same brand and requiring pharmacists to notify patients if a brand is switched.

T4 manufacturers such as Abbott, King Pharmaceutical’s subsidiary Jones Pharma (which makes Levoxyl) and Stevens (which makes Unithroid) insist that they, too, only have patients’ stability in mind. That altruistic stance, however, is tempered by the fact that generics being introduced by companies such as Mylan and Sandoz are poised to grab a formidable market share of a blockbuster drug. Abbott, whose Synthroid accounts for over 65% of T 4 sales, has particular reason to be concerned.

Thyroxine’s tortured regulatory history also adds to the context. In the 1980s, Flint Pharmaceuticals, Synthroid’s original manufacturer, commissioned a group at the University of California, San Francisco, led by pharmacologist Betty Dong, to compare Synthroid with other brands. When Dong’s research showed that four different brands of T4 were essentially bioequivalent, the company (which had since then been bought by Boots Pharmaceuticals) allegedly suppressed the study’s publication for seven years. The work was finally printed in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1997, accompanied by a scathing editorial about academic freedom by a former JAMA editor, Drummond Rennie.

Because T4 had been available for decades, FDA in 1962 originally exempted the drug’s manufacturers from demonstrating its safety and efficacy. But evidence began piling up that there were serious inconsistencies from batch to batch in concentration, quality, and stability. FDA then changed its mind and required companies to submit New Drug Applications for T4 . Abbott filed an NDA in 2001, and in 2002, it received FDA approval for Synthroid. The result, FDA says, is a more consistent product.

“Products are light-years better than what they used to be in quality and potency,” Orloff says. “We believe endocrinologists have much better tools than they ever did for treating patients with thyroid hormone deficiency.”

And though the FDA is willing to keep talking, the agency considers the issue largely closed. “We have agreed to continue to engage in discussions to try to resolve the misunderstanding, but at this point, FDA has no question about its own standards,” Orloff says.

The lines are still clearly drawn, though. AACE recently conducted a survey of its members, in which over 90% of the more than 900 respondents said they supported more stringent bioequivalence standards for T4 products, as well as a limitation of pharmacists’ ability to substitute T4 brands.

Though AACE and other professional associations receive funding from drug companies like Abbott, Hamilton says preference for a particular brand isn’t the societies’ concern. “There’s no question that Abbott would love it if everybody took Synthroid. And King Pharmaceuticals would love everybody to take Levoxyl,” he says. “But we don’t take sides. We just want people to stay on what they’re already taking.”—ELIZABETH WILSON

Source: American Chemical Society
Another good resource on this subject matter: American Thyroid Association; Medicine Net

Thyroxine

Thyroxine is the primary hormone produced by the thyroid gland.
Every cell in the body depends upon thyroid hormones for regulation of their metabolism.
The thyroid gland is the biggest gland in the neck. It is situated in the anterior (front) neck below the skin and muscle layers. The thyroid gland takes the shape of a butterfly with the two wings being represented by the left and right thyroid lobes which wrap around the trachea. The sole function of the thyroid is to make thyroid hormone. Thyroid hormone has an effect on nearly all tissues of the body where it increases cellular activity. The function of the thyroid is to regulate the body's metabolism (conversion of oxygen and calories to energy).
In healthy people, the thyroid makes just the right amounts of hormones, which have important actions throughout the body. These hormones regulate many aspects of our metabolism, eventually affecting how many calories we burn, how warm we feel, and how much we weigh. In short, the thyroid "runs" our metabolism. These hormones also have direct effects on most organs, including the heart which beats faster and harder under the influence of thyroid hormones. Essentially all cells in the body will respond to increases in thyroid hormone with an increase in the rate at which they conduct their business.

U.S. newspaper industry suffers three years of decline; market value has fallen 42% since end of 2004, with 2007 accounting for nearly half

Since the end of 2004, the U.S. newspaper industry’s market value has fallen 42%—and most of that drop happened last year, according to a newspaper analyst, Silicon Valley Insider reported Jan. 2.

In the last three years, the market value of American newspapers has lost $23 billion, with almost half of that loss occurring in 2007 when shares decreased a collective $11 billion, or 26%, according to Reflections of Newsosaur analyst Alan D. Mutter.

The media companies that suffered the largest drops include Journal Register Co., whose shares went down 91% to $68.9 million by the end of 2007; Sun-Times Media Group, whose shares declined 86% to $176.7 million; and The McClatchy Company, one of the largest publicly traded media companies, whose shares fell 82% to $1.03 billion.

Two American publishers, however, bucked the trend and saw a rise in their value. The Washington Post Co. enjoyed a 4% increase in value in the last three years, thanks to its diversification out of the newspaper business and into the test preparation business. And Dow Jones saw its value surge 65% after being bought by News Corp. Though News Corp saw a 10% gain, it was not counted in the data because it only published one American newspaper before the acquisition.

In light of declining stocks, even the newspaper industry’s efforts to capitalize on new media sales have not lived up to its promise, Silicon Valley Insider reported. Meanwhile, the efforts of chief executives Rupert Murdoch, of News Corp., and Sam Zell, who recently financed the going-private transaction of the Tribune Company, also haven’t completely alleviated investors’ concerns about the eroding value of newspapers.

The primary source of this article is Silicon Valley Insider, New York, N.Y., on Jan. 2, 2008.

Nothing can beat that. Newsprint market is on a roll to deliver no so uplifting news.
Is the newspaper industry dying? from the Journalism.org
Running the Numbers: Why Newspapers Are Screwed
Subprime crisis hits newspapers’ revenues

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Less than 1

We achieved the safety goal of less than 1 for 2007. I want for dummies book in a wendy sack. Hm...idiot guide, NOT!

Not so quick, because as a business unit, we fell far short of our <1 goal. We still have lots to do to get there as company. Gossip: my former business unit made it. They are improving.

Ah...

Jan. Birthday

Sara, Yosuke, Linda, Angela Y., Uncle Andy, Ed, Perry and Richard. Happy Birthday!

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Pac 10 not quite a full victory yet.

OR St Beavers, OR Ducks, USC Trojans and Cal Golden Bears won their bowl games but UCLA Bruins lost to BYU and Az st. Sun Devils lost to TX.

Rose Bowl & Sugar Bowl
I can't make up my mind.

Illini vs. Trojans
One is orange color, other is in the Pac-10 but (is my #2 dislke team)!
(6) USC 49, (13) Illinois 17

Bulldogs vs. Warriors
Hockinson family is big fan, and Warrrios is the only team in the nation ended the season undefeated.
(4) Georgia 41, (10) Hawaii 10

I heard him on NPR

NIck Lowe

HNY 08

Stay Healthy, be happy!So far, I know there will be 4 weddings this year: Lois(June), Karen(July), Angela(July) & Pauleen.

I lost my cell phone!

Don't call me at 503#!